The developer behind restorations of Union Station and Lehigh Riverport is now brewing a $6.7 million plan to bring Mexican flavor to south Bethlehem.

On an old Bethlehem Steel parking lot around the corner from SteelStacks, Ashley Development President Lou Pektor wants to build a Mexican microbrewery, Cerveza, and a fine-dining Mexican restaurant, Agave.

The restaurants, to be operated by Seattle-area restaurateur El Sarape and owned by Bethlehem 21st Century, would be separate venues in the 21/2 -story building that would have a rooftop deck for summer dining.

Pektor described it as the first East Coast location for El Sarape, which operates five restaurants in Washington state.

According to city documents, El Sarape plans to open another restaurant on the north side and expand to a 100-mile radius, creating five to eight new restaurants in the Lehigh Valley.

Pektor said the project has all the ingredients for success: a seasoned restaurateur with 35 years of experience and a location in an upcoming neighborhood teeming with employees at a nearby office during the day, and visitors to SteelStacks during the evening.

He said he wants to start building as soon as possible and hopes to be open by this time next year.

But he said one hurdle stands in his way: a special tax incentive Bethlehem landed. Pektor's 0.38-acre site, 404 E. Third St., isn't in the City Revitalization and Improvement Zone, and Pektor said he needs to be included to do the project.

The CRIZ, which covers 130 acres in the city including swaths of the former Steel property, allows developers to use certain state and local taxes to offset construction costs.

Pektor said he needs a high-end building to attract an El Sarape to the site, which has languished vacant under his ownership since the Great Recession. The construction cost would "warrant a rent that is far above market rate in the Lehigh Valley," Pektor said in documents filed with the city.

"We can't make the economics work for the site" without the CRIZ, Pektor said.

The developers estimate the zone would provide $139,797 by the second year and gradually increase to $192,682 by the fifth year.

Alicia Miller Karner, director of the CRIZ authority, said there is room for the city to change the boundaries of the zone to include the project. She noted the city is looking to remove from the CRIZ a parking lot on the north side and the property where Perkins sits.

"I think we have a good project for this site," she said.

Karner said it brings investment to a vacant piece of land in an area where the city is trying to grow businesses. It would also bring 90 full- and part-time jobs from dishwashers to a master brewer. The annual payroll would be $2.5 million.

"Looking at the pictures provided, it's going to be beautiful," said Ann McHale, a member of the authority overseeing the CRIZ. "…I think it's definitely a plus for that area."

The authority on Thursday approved Pektor's proposal as a "qualified project," the first step in a process to obtain the tax incentive. The next step is a formal application that will require the CRIZ boundaries to be changed

The state is expected to provide direction this month on how cities can change CRIZ boundaries.

Last month, the authority granted approval to the Social Still to develop the city's first distillery in a Prohibition-era bank a block away from Pektor's project.